It Started at the PTA
by FunkyWashingMachine
Summary: Sam Holt takes a shine to a lovely gentleman in the PTA. The only trouble is, Sam's already married, and the lovely gentleman might be an alien from outer space.
1. Chapter 1

The man's name was Coran, and Sam was in love with him.

It wasn't on purpose. He was already married.

But Coran was all things wonderful and Sam was in love with him.

He first met him at the PTA, partway through the school year. Coran and his niece had only recently joined their school district after moving from somewhere that Coran assured them was very far away.

And what a change it was.

There was nobody else who smiled like Coran, nobody who lived life with such enthusiasm, like every moment was a delicacy and every person was a friend.

He felt noticed. Maybe he wasn't, but he felt that way.

And it was a feeling he'd had before, when Coran looked him in the eye and smiled as though they had an inside joke and said something that he didn't understand.

It was a very old feeling indeed.

It was how KIDS felt. It hadn't happened to him since college, back when he'd first met Colleen. They'd been put on a group project together, they met in the library, and she let him go on and on about gravity and dark matter before smiling and telling him, "Your theories are shit."

He couldn't stop thinking about it for days.

When he next saw her, he could barely hold it together, but he bit his cheek and managed to say, "I have a shitty theory that I should ask you out on a date."

And she smiled again, with that sly look of hers, and said, "It's always fun to test shitty theories."

They were married a few years later.

And this was both different and the same. It was slow, it moved unnoticed until it had snuck up close enough to drag him under.

There was one day when he realized why he was looking forward to the PTA meeting so much more than usual.

He was fascinated, and he was afraid.

It really wasn't that he didn't love Colleen…

It was just something different. It was new, it was thrilling, it was scary.

And yet it was just like how it had been with Colleen. The more he tried not to think about it, the more he couldn't stop.

He thought about it on his way to work.

He thought about it when she kissed him goodnight.

What else was there inside him that he didn't know about?

He thought about that, too.


	2. Chapter 2

It was only on reflex that Katie disliked the new girl.

She knew well enough where the chips lay by now – she was weird and she wasn't cute and she sucked at "people." So when the new girl showed up, she didn't pay her much attention.

Not that she couldn't tell she was PRETTY… but she knew what would happen if she tried to talk to her.

People like that lived in a completely different world than she did. People like that, who cared about their looks and actually wielded a scrap of social clout because of it. At some point she had just stopped trying to talk to them. Even, if not especially, the prettiest ones.

She didn't see the new girl hanging out with other people yet, but that would happen soon enough. A younger Katie might have tried to be that girl's friend. But give it time, there would be students asking her where she did her hair and got her clothes and then they would have those fulfilling modern-day friendships with makeup and nails and magazines or whatever.

Sometimes Katie wondered if the world was just as lonely for people who DID have friends.

She was passing the new girl in the hall one day when she heard some dumb guy shouting at her.

"Hey slut! What does your pussy taste like?"

The girl looked over from her locker.

"That's disgusting," she grimaced. "You EAT your companion animals?"

Katie stopped walking. Was that a joke? Was that actually a FUNNY joke? Whatever it was, she definitely hadn't seen it coming.

"Hey, whoa, don't get that way with me," the guy said. "I'm giving you a COMPLIMENT."

"Hey!" Katie snapped. "Piss the hell off!"

He turned to her with one of those jerkass expressions.

"Oh, a little nerd, I'm so SCARED," he jeered.

"You SHOULD be, or I'll tell your teacher who's REALLY doing your homework!"

The boy grumbled something with the words "fuck you too" and slunk away.

"What was that all about?"

Katie had to turn around to realize the new girl was talking to her.

"Oh. My brother runs a bit of an underground homework market around here."

"But why did you yell at him?"

"Because he was making fun of you?"

"Really? Well, thank you."

Katie felt her heart kick up a notch.

"Sure. Yeah. Any time."

"That does seem like a rather strange way to make fun of somebody," the girl looked in the direction the boy had gone.

"Yeah. I mean. People are weird," Katie said.

"I've quite gathered that since I came here."

Katie glanced around. Was this a CONVERSATION?

"Yeah, I noticed you're new here. Where are you from?"

"Far away," said the girl.

"Like… in America?"

"No, farther than that."

"Then where?"

The girl looked down.

"I'd rather not talk about it, if you don't mind."

"Um… sorry."

She looked back up at her.

"It's fine. So, may I ask what your name is?"

Names? NAMES? This was a conversation for the books.

"Oh, it's Katie, but my friends call me Pidge."

Which was a bit of a stretch but hey.

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Pidge. My name is Allura."

"That's… really pretty," Katie found herself saying. The girl laughed.

"Well, thank you. So is yours."

That had to be a lie but she didn't care.

"So. Uh. How do you like this school so far?"

Allura tucked her hair behind an ear.

"It is what it is. This 'chocolate milk' that you have is rather nice, though."

"I mean… I think every school here has that."

"Do they? Well, I enjoy it very much."

"Yeah. Chocolate milk is awesome."

God. If this had looked like a promising interaction a moment ago, she was sure blowing it now.

"So, Pidge, what sort of things do people around here do for fun?"

"Oh. Jeez," Katie said. "I'm the WORST person to ask about that."

"That's all right, I'd still like to know," said Allura.

"Well, if you're normal you probably, like… go shopping and get a milkshake with your friends or something."

"'Normal?' Is that not what YOU do?"

"No, I stay at home and play video games like the cool person I am."

It wouldn't be worth it to lie about herself, but Katie was starting to wish she looked a LITTLE less like a fuckjob.

"Well, I'm sure that's worthwhile in its own right," Allura said. "You wouldn't be doing it otherwise."

Katie felt her ears getting hot.

"Nah, it's mostly because I'm too weird to have friends."

Allura gave her a look like she had never seen from someone of her age group. A look like she UNDERSTOOD.

"The people here are quite strange," she said. "Are you from far away yourself?"

She wished she could have said yes, and that she wasn't just a complete social failure.

"Heh… no, I've lived in this town all my life. I'm just weird."

Allura closed her locker.

"Well, I'm happy to have met somebody else who doesn't fit in here."

Katie stared for a moment. She had never felt her heart do something like that before.

This girl was actually nice to talk to, and she was PRETTY. It was almost like she wasn't HUMAN.

She couldn't believe she was about to ask.

"So… where do you get your hair done?"

"Oh," Allura touched a strand. "I do it myself, but if – my uncle isn't busy, he helps sometimes."

"It's really beautiful."

Allura smiled.

"My father used to do it for me when I was younger. Coran was always better at it, but Father just wanted an excuse to spend time with me."

"Who's Coran?"

"Oh. My uncle."

"You live with him?"

"Yes."

"Anyone else?"

"No, I'm afraid it's just us."

"Not even your dad?"

The girl looked sad all of a sudden.

"Fuck, I'm sorry," Katie said. "I told you I was an idiot."

"It's fine," Allura said. "What about you? Do you live in some sort of family unit here?"

"A wild Pidgey appeared!" somebody shouted from across the way.

Katie didn't bother turning.

"Hi, Matt."

Allura looked past her.

"Is this the brother with the homework dealership?"

"Have you been talking about me, Pidge?" Matt said. She faced him now, sort of not wanting him to see her.

"Only as much as I have to, you dork."

But Matt wasn't even looking at her.

She sighed.

She'd seen that face before.

"But soft!" said Matt. "What light upon yonder window breaks? It is the east, and this fair maiden is the sun!"

"Yeah, this is Matt," Katie pushed his hand away.

"A pleasure to meet you," Allura nodded, smiling.

"Oh, believe me, the pleasure is mine," Matt said. Katie felt her fist tighten as he bowed and offered his hand again.

Allura gave him her hand and laughed as he kissed it.

"Would you like me to compare you to a summer's day?" he said. "Because I could totally do that."

Katie yanked his hand away.

"Oh my god Matt, stop, you're such a nerd."

"What's a nerd?" Allura said.

Katie scoffed and pointed.

"HIM."

"Well, maybe nerds aren't such a bad thing, then," Allura said.

"Uh, well I'M a nerd too. MORE of a nerd."

"No way, she is NOT more of a nerd than me," Matt said.

"That's not true," Katie said. "He can't even list every Star Trek episode in order."

"Neither can she, don't let her fool you!"

Allura sighed.

"Do nerds ALWAYS bicker like this?"

"We're not bickering," they said over each other.

"Well, they call that bickering where I come from," Allura said, picking up her bag. "It's been lovely to meet you both, but I do have to get back home now. I hope I'll see you again soon."

She shouldered the backpack and headed down the hall.

Both of them watched her walk away.


End file.
